The sudden decision of YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy to postpone his proposed marathon padayatra from October 27 has taken his fans, followers and party cadre by surprise.

On the birth anniversary of his father late Y S Rajasekhar Reddy on July 9, Jagan announced that he would take up a six-month long padayatra from October 27, covering more than 3,000 km to understand the people’s problems and give them an assurance that they would be taken care of once he comes to power. Obviously, he was planning to replicate the 2003 padayatra of his father, which brought YSR to power in 2004.

The ‘walkathon’ is scheduled to begin from his ancestral village of Idupulapaya in Kadapa district of Rayalseema. It would finally end in Ichchapuram in Srikakulam district of north coastal AP. The brain behind the padayatra was poll strategist Prashant Kishor, who was hired by Jagan to draft the strategies for the YSRC win in 2019.

However, on Monday, Jagan is learnt to have decided to postpone his padayatra to a later date. There were reports that October 27 was not an auspicious date and if he started the padayatra then, it might not fetch the desired result. So, the astrologers have asked him to postpone the padayatra by a week or two. Since this reason would also appeal to the Hindu voters, Jagan agreed to the suggestion, say these reports.

But inquiries revealed that there is no truth in these reports. In fact, October 27 is a very auspicious day – Sapthami and since it is Karthika masam, every day is very auspicious. Moreover, this date was finalised long ago and Jagan might have consulted astrologers then itself before announcing it. So, it is not the reason for the sudden decision to postpone the padayatra.

Sources say Jagan is of the view that his weekly appearance before the trial court will cause a lot of inconvenience to his padayatra. Every week, he has to cut short his padayatra and come to Hyderabad to attend the court and then go back to his tour. This is going to cause not only troubles but also political embarrassment.

So, he wants to move the Supreme Court seeking exemption from appearance before the court in view of his political commitments. If his case is presented well, there is every possibility that Supreme Court might grant him exemption. Since it would take three or four weeks, it would be better to postpone the padayatra till a decision comes. If it does not come in his favour, then he can think of alternative measures, say sources.